


(ab)Normal

by natsubeatsrock



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: I Mean It Isn't Impossible To Work In Canon, Jokes Aside, it just didn't happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23160637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natsubeatsrock/pseuds/natsubeatsrock
Summary: It's been a few weeks since the Grand Magic Games have ended and things have slowed down quite a bit since then. But something is off with the members of the Fairy Tail guild and it might cause the ruin of the guild. Only one person can help them. Will she be able to find out what's wrong with them?
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel & Lisanna Strauss, Natsu Dragneel & Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	(ab)Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to the wonderful accounts that sent me messages on Tumblr over the past month. Make sure to read to the end before commenting!

"Normal" is not a word that Lucy Heartfilia would use to describe her life.

Ever since a certain pink-haired dragon slayer ran into her life, she couldn't even use the word "normal" to describe the average day. Normal people don't find themselves in the middle of three wars with opposing guilds. Normal people aren't teleported to alternate dimensions where there are opposite versions of everyone you know, including yourself, ruled by talking, flying cats. Normal people aren't turned into magical energy for seven years so they won't be destroyed by a 400-year old dragon.

A couple of weeks ago, Lucy was running around the capital city to tell the princess of the Fiore that the only way to stop dragons from destroying the world was by destroying an ancient evil gate, which she only found out by reading a diary from a version of herself from an alternate future who also died right in front of her only minutes ago. As one does.

Somewhere in between then and now, things had calmed down a bit. Things would likely never be as calm as before joining Fairy Tail. However, the peaks and valleys were far less extreme than usual. About the strangest thing that happened was Natsu asking out Lisanna. As weird as that may have been to people with only a passing knowledge of Natsu, it wasn't all that shocking to those closest to him. In fact, some of them were shocked that they didn't become a couple sooner.

As for Lucy, she had grown particularly close to Natsu. After all, he was the certain pink-haired dragon slayer that made her life so much less normal ever since they had become partners years ago. Technically months ago, it's kind of complicated. 

At any rate, she was happy for her friend. But for some reason, she couldn't fully enjoy this and she couldn't exactly understand why. She wasn't in love with him. She burned that bridge ever since that time she thought he wanted to confess to her. But something was telling her that something about this was wrong. What was going on?

Lucy ignored the weird feeling she had as she went about her usual schedule. Ever since the Grand Magic Games ended, the guild got their old guildhall back, so it was nice to see things going back to the way she was used to. And it was about time for them to look for work, which was why she was currently looking at the job request board. She found a good job:

Help our Town Get Rid of Vulcans!  
Reward: 250,000 Jewel

"This should be good", Lucy thought to herself. "Natsu will enjoy punching in evil monsters and I should be able to pay for rent this month." After all, she had to factor in Natsu destroying stuff and deductions from her cut of the pay. 

She pulled the job request off the board and walked up towards Natsu. "Natsu! I found a job!"

As she said that, he started to have a pained expression on his face. "Yeah, about that," he started. "I can't do this with you."

"Oh, I see. You want to take a break from missions. Well, I guess we can-"

"No", he interrupted. "I mean I'm not going to work with you anymore."

Lucy was slightly shocked, but she immediately thought of a good reason why. "I get it if you want to go on missions with your girlfriend, but that doesn't mean that we can't stop-"

"No, Lucy", Natsu said in a more stern tone than before. "We can't work together anymore. You'd just get in the way." With that, he walked away.

"Get in the way?" she thought to herself. "I wasn't that bad in the Grand Magic Games." She was ready to protest, but he had already left and was already starting a conversation with Lisanna. 

Lucy didn't know how to take all of this in. Her best friend just told her he was going to stop working with her and it seemed fairly obvious that the reason why was so that he could work with his girlfriend instead. Her immediate response was just to play it off. 

"There's no way he's actually not going to work with me anymore", she thought to herself. "This is probably just a prank they're playing on me."

She then looked at the job request in her hands. "Well," she thought to herself, "I can't let this job go to waste. After all, these people need help and I need to pay rent. This job can't be that bad, right?"

To her credit, it wasn't that bad. No doubt, it was still a tricky job for one person to take care of. However, she was able to take care of the Vulcans without destroying anything in the process. 

Normally, this would be a cause for celebration. She could hardly remember the last time she went on a mission of this nature that didn't result in something getting destroyed. Or if such an event ever occurred. However, she couldn't help but think that one of the big reasons the missions was damage-free was because she wasn't with Natsu. She put those concerns aside as she received her reward for the job. 

Afterward, she decided to spend the night in the town and ask around about the whereabouts of former guild members. This was something that Lucy had started to do after coming back from the seven-year gap. As happy as she was to be reunited with the members at the guild, she couldn't help but notice many of the guild members had left the guild. She wanted to know where they were and how they were doing. 

Since starting her search, she was able to find out where a few people were. She heard that Mikuni Shin, an earth wizard, went back to work at his old sushi shop. After the Grand Magic Games, she found out Tono Rabbits, a light mage, decided to stay near the capital doing freelance work in the city. About a week ago, she discovered that Mickey Chickentiger was on a similar search trying to get her group, Team Young Mega-Death, back together. 

On that night, she found out that Joey Fullborn and Wan Chanzi were still doing work as partners in a nearby guild. Though, they had never squared away their rivalry, which also carried over to the guild. From what she heard, one of their friends, Chico C. Hammit was working with them early after leaving the guild. However, she decided to leave the guild and hadn't made contact with them since.

"That makes sense," Lucy thought to herself, while she prepared to go to sleep. "Chico was only ever able to control the spirits within the city. There might not be too many wandering spirits around here to control. " Lucy wasn't entirely sure if Chico would want to see her. They never really hit it off when she was joining the guild. She was busy with Natsu and the others at the time. And after the whole Phantom Lord incident, it seemed like she didn't want to interact with her. It was almost as if she agreed with Laxus that the whole thing was her fault.

Remembering her old friends made her go back to the episode at the guildhall. Natsu and Lucy had their fair share of disagreements, but this was completely out of the ordinary. If anything, she would have wanted to stop working with him before what happened, and even that seemed a bridge too far for her. More than that, the idea that Lucy could be a burden never came up as even a possibility since the Strongest Team formed. Something didn't seem right about this.

"But after seeing how I finished the mission, Natsu will totally take me back," Lucy assured herself as she started to fall asleep. She hesitated at that thought. "Why am I worried about Natsu taking be back? He was joking earlier, right? He'll totally let me work with him. Right?"

Those answers would come as she came to the guild the next day. She was pretty far off, but she could see Natsu, Happy, and Lisanna leaving the guildhall. While it looked like they were going to go to Lucy's direction, they started to turn to go in another direction.

She cried out to them, "Natsu! Happy! Lisanna! Wait up!" Realizing they had no other choice, they waited for the blond mage to catch to them. "Are you guys going on a mission?" 

Natsu started to look around and then looked towards Lucy. "What does it matter?" he said in a tone that indicated little enthusiasm for the conversation.

"Well, I got back from doing the mission that I told you about earlier and I saw you guys. So I figured that I tagged along with you. Just wait for me, I wanted to tell the master that I-"

"You don't need to do that." This time, it was Lisanna who spoke up.

Lucy realized that her hands were starting to form into a fist, as she asked, "What do you mean?" 

"I told you already, Lucy," Natsu said. "I don't want to work with you anymore."

Lucy asked, "Why not?" As the words left her mouth, she realized they sounded more annoyed than she intended.

"Can you really ask that after the Grand Magic Games?"

And there it was. 

Lucy was ready to admit that she didn't do well during the Grand Magic Games. She lost her match against Flare and got embarrassed by Minerva Orland. However, it wasn't exactly her own fault. She certainly didn't perform badly enough for him to stop working with her.

Right?

Lucy wasn't going to stand for this. At least, she wouldn't have if it wasn't for the Exceed who decided only now to speak. "Guys, if we don't hurry we won't make it to the town in time."

"You're right", Lisanna noted, almost as if the angry blonde wasn't in front of them. "Let's go." Happy latched onto Natsu's back and started to fly off as Lisanna took off by forming her own wings.

Lucy protested, "Hey! Wait a minute! We're not done talking about this!" She yelled as the wizards flew off further and further away, "Natsu! NATSU!!" But they were already gone.

Lucy decided to go home. The entire way, she was fuming over her supposed friend blowing her off. 

Her mind flashed back to her loss against Flare. When she was feeling down about her loss, he was the one who reassured her that it would be fine. "Save the tears for when we win." As she thought back to that moment, tears were running down her face. "What was that even for if you were just going to kick me to the curb anyway?" That thought ran circles in her mind as she ran home, ignoring the warning not to fall into the river while she wasn't looking.

When she woke up the next morning, she decided to stop crying. She figured she might as well cut her losses and give up on working with Natsu. After all, there were plenty of other people in the guild that she could work with.

At least, that's what she thought until Gray turned her down. "Sorry, the master already asked me to go on a mission and I'm almost late to the train", he said making his way towards the door. Juvia also walked out with him. She couldn't tell if Juvia was invited or not and learned not to ask a long time ago unless she wanted to hear accusations about being her "love rival". 

As she watched the two walk out of the guild, she remembered that Erza was also away. The master had asked her to go on an S-Class mission soon after the Grand Magic Games ended and she wasn't back yet. She likely wouldn't be back for a few more days. So, there was only one person left on her team who she could ask to work with.

"Sorry, Lucy", Wendy said. "Carla and I are already going on a mission with Romeo later today."

"Romeo Conbolt?"

The young wizard smiled and nodded.

"You're going on a mission with him?"

"Yes", Wendy responded with a worried look. "Is something wrong with that?"

"Not really. It's just that... you know..." Unable to form the right words, she turned to Carla and asked, "Are you okay with this?"

"Of course not", the exceed responded. "Why do you think I'm going with her?"

Wendy asked, with a smile on her face"Wouldn't you go work with me anyway?"

Lucy decided to leave them alone. If she was going to work with someone, she ought to work with someone outside of her main team. 

"Sorry, Lucy. I'm not sure I should work with you."

Lucy protested, "Why not, Cana? We worked together on Tenrou Island."

"Yes", Cana admitted, "but that was one time. Not to mention..."

"Not to mention, what?" 

Cana pointed at Lucy. "We may be competing against each other and I don't want you to learn any more of my tricks."

Lucy couldn't believe Cana would accuse her of something that seemed to go counter to Fairy Tail's beliefs. However, considering Natsu's recent actions, this just might be commonplace now. Of course, it wasn't as if she didn't have other options.

"Sorry, Lu", Levy responded. "Shadow Gear just got a translation job."

"Okay," Lucy conceded, "but maybe we can do something later."

Levy was about to respond, but her face changed. When Lucy turned around, she saw Gajeel. She had a pretty strong inkling that her friend liked the Dragon Slayer. But for some reason, Levy's face didn't look like she was nervous. She couldn't put her finger on what it was though because Levy dashed off. She heard something along the lines of, "Maybe later, I have to go. Bye!" as she watched her go. Lucy wasn't sure if she should put much stock in the chance to talk later.

She walked over to Gajeel. "Hey, Gajeel. You want to work with me?"

He looked at her and plainly said, "Why? We've never done anything together." 

On another day, with another person, Lucy might have protested on the basis that they were guildmates. But she didn't want to try her luck with Gajeel, especially considering that she wasn't having much luck with the people close to her.

"Man," Lucy thought to herself. "Everyone has their own jobs." She then remembered that she hadn't told Makarov she got back from her own job. She made her way over to Makarov's office and knocked on the door. 

"Come in", Makarov responded as Lucy opened the door. "Oh hello, Lucy," he said as she made her way in. "How are you doing?"

"Well I've been better," she replied, not sure if she wanted to burden him with her story. "I just wanted to let you know that I did the Vulcan job. The town mayor sends his regards."

"That's good to hear. Nothing bad happened?"

Lucy chuckled, "No, the people are fine and nothing got destroyed during the job." In her mind, she finished, "And I got the whole reward."

Makarov sighed. "Thank goodness. I can't have the council on my back for too much longer or I'll have to retire." He started laughing but stopped quickly as he was reminded how real that threat was.

Luckily, for him, Lucy also decided it was a good idea to change the subject. "Umm, Master?"

"What is it, child?"

"I've been asking around and it seems like a lot of people in the guild got missions from you. I was wondering if you have something for me." 

When Lucy said that, the master paused for a bit. She couldn't exactly tell but it almost looked like he was in pain. "Master, is something wrong?" 

"No...child. Everything is... fine...", he managed.

However, it was clear that something was going on with him. Lucy offered, "Are you sure I shouldn't try to get Mirajane or-"

As she was making her suggestion, Makarov exclaimed"That's it!"

"What?", the startled young wizard replied.

With that, the master looked on his desk for some papers. He grabbing a blank one and wrote something down on it. "I don't have anything for you right now," he said as he handed her the paper, "but you might want to check there if they have anything you're interested in."

Lucy looked at the sheet of paper with some confusion. "Are you sure you want me to go here?"

"I'm sure you'll find something good there."

"If you say so", Lucy said as she made her way out of the office. "See you later, master."

"Come back safe."

Leaving the office, Lucy almost told her teammates that she was going out, out of habit. But she stopped when she remembered they were all doing their own things anyway. She decided to take the quickest train she could still buy to get to the location Makarov gave her.

While on the train, she couldn't help but notice how different it was riding a train without the rest of her team. Normally, a trip to any destination with The Strongest Team would be a disaster at least because of Natsu's motion sickness. Gray might have still been getting into a fight with him over something stupid and Erza would stop the quarrel armed only with the threat of deadly force. Wendy would probably have offered to cast Troia on him, but he'd refuse in case something more important came up later on. Happy would probably make some kind of smart-alec remark at Natsu's expense or try to make a pass at Carla and they'd all laugh. 

But Lucy was by herself. She had no teammates or partners. There weren't even other passengers on board her car. The trips to and from the previous job were also fairly quiet, but something about this trip, especially considering the context behind it, made her notice how different it was to be by herself.

But isn't that a good thing? After all, ever since Natsu dragged her to Fairy Tail, this is the kind of thing that she wanted. She wanted quiet train rides. She wanted uninterrupted sleep without worrying about people breaking into her apartment. She wanted to take on jobs and not worry about whether she'd make money afterward. And now she had all of that. Things were finally going back to normal for her and it came at the cost of having him and the rest of her friends push her aside and leave her on her own. 

"Is that what this weird feeling I've had has been?"

Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, an announcement made by the conductor let her know that she reached her destination. Questions about her past and present could wait. Lucy was determined to make her future bright. So what if Natsu and the rest of the guild didn't want to work with her? She was going to change her fate. Starting with...

"Fruits Park?" Lucy read the paper that Makarov gave her. She had gone to the right address. It had to be the right place considering it was next to the Pool House, as Makarov wrote in his instructions.

"But why would he send me here?" She couldn't imagine that she'd be able to find a wizard's job at a sweets shop. "I'm sure he has his reasons." She went through the doors and hoped for the best.

She was greeted by a fairly young girl in a maid outfit. "Welcome to Fruits Park!" Something about the girl's smile made Lucy feel better.

"By any chance, do you have any job offers?" she asked, still not sure why Makarov sent her to this place.

"If you mean if we're hiring, we don't have any open positions right now. Besides, I don't know that you would want to work here after being a Fairy Tail wizard."

Lucy almost questioned how she knew this but remembered that the Grand Magic Games were likely broadcasted and her guild mark was one her hand.

"Yeah, I guess so", she responded.

"If you want, I can take your order. I just need to check something in the back." With that, the waitress took a tray and walked into the kitchen.

Lucy sighed out of relief. The last thing she expected was the insinuation that her current position as a guild member was to be envied. If she spoke for much longer with her, she might have broken down on the poor woman. After a long day of work, she probably didn't want to hear-

"Lucy?" She recognized the voice.

Another voice she recognized questioned, "Is that you?"

Lucy turned behind her and almost couldn't believe who was behind her. "Alzack? Bisca? Asuka?"

"Hi, Lucy!", the child responded.

"But, what are you all doing here?"

Alzack responded, "We came to visit my relatives. They moved over to Fiore and they're not too far from here so we wanted to stay over with."

Bisca asked, "How are you doing, Lucy?"

The words "I'm okay" formed on her lips. She was even about to say them. But as she started to say them, she broke down in tears. 

After getting a table together, Lucy began to explain everything that happened over the past few days. Natsu deciding not to work with her. The rest of the guild ignoring her. Her thoughts about the situation. Everything from getting the Vulcan job to their meeting came out mixed in between ugly sobs and mouthfuls of caramel mousse. Occasionally, she'd have to repeat herself either because she was crying too much or bad too much food in her mouth to be understood. Although Asuka was tearing up, Alzack and Bisca had more of a concerned look on their faces throughout Lucy's confession.

As Lucy was wrapping up, she remembered herself. "I'm sorry," she managed. "You guys came here to enjoy a meal here together as a family and I've ruined it with my own personal drama."

"Don't worry. It wouldn't be the first time", Alzack said, glancing over at the child who started to hug Lucy.

"What he means," Bisca interjected while placing a hand on her husband's lap, "is that we're more than glad to help one of our fellow guildmates. After all, you helped look after Asuka for us. Why wouldn't we want to return the favor?" She was careful not to mention Natsu's involvement in the job, hoping not to trigger more sad memories.

"It's funny," Lucy replied. "This is the nicest anyone in our guild has been and we're nowhere near Magnolia."

"Don't let that bother you," Bisca responded, glad that her sin of omission went unchallenged. "It's not all too common for so many of us to get jobs straight from the Master, but we don't all exactly sync up our work schedules together anyway."

"I guess you're right," Lucy admitted. "I remember this kind of thing happening around the time we almost went to Tenrou Island."

"Lucy," Alzack spoke up, "if you don't mind answering, what do you think of your performance in the Grand Magic Games?"

Lucy sniffed before responding, "What do you think? I lost both my events embarrassingly."

As she started to continue eating her now melting dessert, he responded. "Well, it might not have been as bad as you think."

A confused Lucy started, "Wae, wa ou u," before remembering she still had food in her mouth. After swallowing, she tried again. "What do you mean? I lost my battle with Flare."

"But you were able to summon two spirits at once and almost cast that huge spell. Sure, it didn't go off, but that didn't seem to be the result of anything within the rules."

"Okay," Lucy admitted. "But there was the Naval Battle-"

"Where you got second place? Heck, you beat out Juvia of all people. Not to mention..."

"Not to mention, what?"

"You helped save Asuka from Flare." When she heard her name, she looked up at Lucy.

With that, Lucy came to an epiphany. "I get it. I've been too focused on the bad things that have been happening to me. I've already been doing amazing stuff. I took out the Vulcans by myself."

"There you go."

"I stopped a whole group of bandits."

"That's it."

"I own most of the Golden Celestial Spirit Keys."

"Way to go."

"Thank you, guys. I'm starting to feel better", Lucy said."Even if Natsu and the others don't want me to work with them, I can work fine on my own."

Bisca chuckled, "Well, it's good to know that we've talked you out of leaving the guild."

"I can't even imagine what that would be like. I want to stay in the guild, even if I'm not-"

"Wanted!", Asuka yelled while pointing. The members of the table looked to where she pointed. Sure enough, they found a "Wanted" board.

"So that's what Makarov meant when he sent me here", Lucy said. "Excuse me, I just want to take a look at that board", she said moving away from the table.

"Well, it sure was a good idea to come here to eat", Bisca remarked.

"Hey," Alzack protested. "There's no need to make fun of me just because I got outvoted on where to eat."

"Honestly, I just can't believe that they still have this here", she mused looking around at the restaurant. "Though, it looks a bit different than I remember."

"Well, it has been a while since you joined the guild."

This made Asuka curious. She asked, "What do you mean?"

Bisca turned to face her child. "Remember how I told you that Mommy used to be a bad person?" Asuka nodded. "Well", Bisca continued, "this is actually the place where I met Erza. She showed me that what I was doing was wrong and told me all about how amazing Fairy Tail is."

"Wow."

"Something tells me it didn't go exactly like that", Alzack dryly remarked.

"What does that mean, Daddy?"

Suddenly, Lucy rushed back to the table. She barked at the stunned family, "What time are you heading back to the guild?" They couldn't believe that this was the same girl who was crying in front of them.

Alzack spoke up, "W-we planned on leaving tomorrow evening."

"Thank goodness. Don't change your plans for me," Lucy said as she reached into her pockets. She put some money on the table and remarked, "If that's not enough, I'll pay you when you get back. I need to go to the guild now." With that, she hurried for the door.

Bisca called out, "Wait!" Lucy stopped a few steps from the door and turned to hear her question. "Is something wrong?"

Lucy proudly flashed her guild mark and declared, "It's nothing I can't handle."

The couple looked at each other and smiled. They were proud of Lucy's new tone. It was almost as if she was one "I'm all fired up!" away from her partner's personality. But any signs of confidence were welcome by them and they could tell that Lucy needed to do something important.

"Lucy", Asuka chimed in. "Good luck!", she said giving the blonde mage a thumbs up.

Lucy nodded back and replied. "Thank you for everything Connell Family. See you later." With that, Lucy rushed out the door. 

While she rode on the train, she couldn't help but think back over the events of the past few days. "Friends, I'm coming for you. I just hope that I'm wrong about this."

She then reached into her bag to grab one of her keys. "Open, Gate of the Lion, Loke!"

"You called, Princess?" 

"I really want to be wrong about this, but I think the guild has been taken over. Here's what I need you to do."

Her plan didn't take too long to explain. As soon as the train doors opened, she made her way out of the station towards the guild hall as fast as she could. When she got to the hall, she swung the doors open and yelled, "CHICO!!!"

As if on cue, a young woman walked towards her. "Took you long enough."

There was no doubt in Lucy's mind. It was Chico C. Hammit. She could definitely tell it was her old friend. Though, something was definitely off with her. Over the past seven years, it was as if her face had gone from chubby and innocent to a slimmer, more mature look. Lucy was horrified. "What happened to you?"

"You happened," Chico answered, with anger in her tone. "And I've been waiting for a chance to get my revenge ever since you came back from death." She made sure to accent the word "death" with air quotes. Then, all the members in the guildhall stood up and faced Lucy.

"You're controlling them all..."

"Impressive, isn't it? I'm not the same Chico you remember from all those years ago."

"That's too bad," Lucy responded. "I wish there could have been another way this would have happened."

"What do you mean-" Chico was interrupted by the blow to the back of her head knocking her out. As she fell to the ground, she could barely make out the person who attacked her. "Lo...ke...", she managed to say before hitting the floor and passing out.

With that, Lucy also fell to the ground, letting out a sigh of exhaustion.

"Quite the shot in the dark, princess", Loke commented.

"I can't believe... that plan... worked... either..." Lucy made out, in between pants. She started to sit up as she remarked, "I don't know... how Natsu does this."

\--- A Few Days Later ---

"Well, it sure looks like I missed a lot", Erza said. She was shocked to hear Lucy, Alzack, and Bisca explain what happened while she was away. Lucy taking a job on her own would normally be an impressive feat. Hearing that was only part of the guild almost being taken over from the inside was almost too unreal to her. "What I don't understand", she continued, "is why Chico would do something like that?"

Lucy answered, "Do you remember when Laxus got expelled from the guild after his stunt during the Fantasia Parade?"

"Don't remind me. I can still remember getting shocked by the Electric Palace." The members of the table felt a chill as they remembered the feeling.

"Anyways, since he did all that because Phantom Lord got paid by my dad, Chico seemed to blame me for that."

"That makes no sense"

"That's what I thought at first. But when we stuck in Fairy Sphere, the master's son must have convinced her that was also my fault."

"So," Erza questioned," she ended up a spy for Raven Tail?" Lucy nodded. "I can't believe it. Using one of our own to tear us apart. And torturing you nonetheless."

"What about that guy from the magic council you told us about?" Alzack suggested. "Mest was it?"

"No, I think his name was Doranbolt", Lucy corrected.

"Ivan might have wanted to keep a set of eyes on our guild, too."

"Considering his guild is farther from here, we likely wouldn't of any stray members not caught in the arrests during the Grand Magic Games."

"So that's why you went back to Magnolia when you did. And why you wanted us to stay behind," Bisca said to Lucy.

"Yep", Lucy responded. "I didn't want either of you or Asuka to be controlled by Chico after you guys helped me. I can't imagine what that would be like. Thank goodness Erza wasn't in the guild either."

"So," Erza asked, "how did you figure out it was Chico? Other than a well placed Wanted poster."

"That's an easier question to answer. When I was in the guild, I noticed that the actions of people were off. I could almost write off Gray and Juvia, despite what happened at the party with them. But Cana's behavior struck me as weird considering how much we bonded over on Tenrou Island. The real giveaway, though, was Levy's reaction to Gajeel. Chico definitely wouldn't have known how things changed after coming back from Tenrou. Seeing the poster just made everything click in quicker."

Alzack could barely keep up with the logic. "Is that how the mind of a writer works?"

"Although," Lucy addressed Bisca and Alzack, "I wouldn't have put any of this together if you didn't pull me out of my funk."

"No problem, Lucy," Bisca responded. "It's like I said, we're always willing to help you out whenever you need it."

"I still can't believe Chico would do something like this at all", Erza said, still beside herself. "Chico was always able to control the souls in this town. She must have worked hard to control the souls in living beings."

"At least, she wasn't able to control Celestial Spirits or I'd have been in real trouble," Lucy said as she started to stand up and leave. "Well, I guess I'll see you later."

Erza questioned her blonde friend, "Shouldn't we tell the rest of the guild what happened?"

"I'm not too sure I want to worry them with that knowledge just yet. Besides," Lucy looked up towards Makarov's office, "I don't think it's by accident that I ended up at Fruits Park. I only wanted to let you know what happened while you were out. I think I could use a break from missions for a while."

With that, Lucy left the table and started to walk out of the guild. On her way back home, she was greeted by a familiar group of sailors. "Be careful, miss! You might fall in!"

Their warning reminded her of a similar warning only a day earlier.

\---

_"Be careful, ma'am. You only get five minutes", the warden warned her as she waited for the image in the lacrima started to clear up._

_"What do you want?"_

_"Chico, I just wanted to ask you some questions."_

_"Didn't they tell you what happened after you turned me in. You know, after you tied me up unconscious. And who thinks to put people inside of a moving grandfather clock?"_

_Lucy tried to push a bit harder. "I was told some of the details. I know why you came for me and I can guess how you did what you did. But I don't understand a few things and I figured you could let me know the answers?"_

_Chico rolled her eyes and looked away. She wasn't the least bit interested in talking to this woman at all._

_"I mean, it's not like you have much else to do here." That didn't seem to work either. She decided to try something else._

_"You know, I met Flare after Raven Tail got busted."_

_This grabbed Chico's attention. "You know where Flare is?"  
_

_"Not really", she answered. Chico seemed to immediately lose interest. "But," Lucy continued," it seems like they only questioned her and let her go."_

_"Are you saying that I could be let out sooner if I tell you what you want to know?"_

_"I'm saying it's a possibility", Lucy answered. To be honest, she wasn't sure that anything would happen if she helped her. But after finding out that they let out someone who almost killed a small child with a warning, the legal system didn't make much sense to her anyway._

_At any rate, Chico decided to give in to Lucy's demands. "Fine. What do you want to know?"_

_"Some of the guild members said that they had jobs and left. What exactly happened to them?"_

_"It sounds like you understand that I controlled the souls in people. Unfortunately, I don't quite have a large range of control. What I would do is send them out the guild and into some random place in the city just out of my control."_

_"Okay. What about Wendy and Romeo?"_

_"What about them?"_

_Lucy struggled to find the words. "Why did you-"_

_"Oh, that," Chico said chuckling at the question. "Honestly, I didn't know what to do with the new girl and a grown Romeo. I figured I might as well use the situation to play a bit of matchmaker."_

_"As good a segue as I'll get," Lucy said under her breath._

_"What was that?"_

_She cleared her throat before she asked, "Why Natsu and Lisanna? Why would you use them to get me out of the guild?"_

_At this, Chico began to laugh again. This was a heartier laugh than before. "I was wondering when you'd ask that. What, was your plan to ease me into this?"_

_Lucy slowly looked away and shyly responded, "No?" She had been found out. It didn't help that her reaction caused Chico to laugh harder. "Well?" she pressed her._

_"Okay, okay," Chico responded trying to calm herself down. "This one's a bit of a complicated reason, though. You know how Lisanna came back from that crazy place when we all thought she was dead?"_

_"Edolas?"_

_"Yeah. I don't know how to explain it. It's almost as if her spirit was damaged or something when she came back."_

_Lucy was confused. "I thought you control souls. What does that have to do with anything?"_

_"Trust me. You deal with dead souls surrounding one place for long enough, you realize the connection."_

_"So you used Lisanna to get to Natsu?"_

_"Well, yes and no. The plan was to get them into a relationship where they would be spending so much time together, they wouldn't have time to spend with you. But I figured out how I could control living spirits, so I decided to accelerate the plan a bit."_

_"As in, take over the guild to get me out?"_

_"Hey, you come back, didn't you?"_

_"Fair enough." Lucy ceded. "But that doesn't sound that complicated."_

_"Well, there's one more thing to consider."_

_"Which is?" Lucy wanted to know what else there could be. Chico looked kind of uncomfortable with what she was going to say._

_"Aren't you a bit shocked that Natsu and Lisanna haven't really done anything together since she came back?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"One minute left," the bailiff warned._

_"I mean, part of it may be because Natsu's working with you of all people."_

_"Hey!"_

_"Still, I figured they would do something together after they got back."_

_"So you wanted to make that happen quicker?"_

_"Just so we're clear, my main goal was getting you out of the picture. But that wouldn't have been a bad side effect."_

_Lucy had to sit back and think about her words. She knew that Chico didn't know exactly what happened after leaving Tenrou Island and their conversation now. She didn't expect her to know everything that could have and probably did stop them from interacting. Still, she couldn't deny that they didn't spend much time together since Edolas, considering all that she had heard about them._

_"Lucy?"_

_"What?" She had been distracted by her thoughts._

_"Any last questions you have for me?"_

_Lucy didn't really think of another question to ask. But considering the time left with her, she figured she would just say the first thing that came to mind. "Do you like Laxus?"_

_Chico's smile turned sour and she looked like Lucy had turned into one of her spirits. She screamed, "WH-What kind of question is that?"_

\---

At any rate, Lucy was glad that the whole ordeal was over and everyone was back to the way they were before. However, she was spent emotionally and physically. And, thanks to the Vulcan job, she didn't need to worry about rent money for a while. She just wanted to take some time off, work on her novel and get back to her usual routine. She opened the door to her apartment and was ready to-

"Yo!"

"Hi, Lucy!"

Lucy almost couldn't believe Natsu and Happy were in her apartment. Then again, this wasn't the first time they were in her house uninvited.

"Guess everything really is back to normal", Lucy thought to herself.

"What was that, Lucy?" 

"Wait," Lucy commented, realizing her friends heard her, "did I say that out loud?"

"If you keep talking to yourself, people will think that you're going even crazier, Lucy", Happy chimed in.

"What's that supposed to mean, furball?" Lucy asked, glaring at the blue exceed.

"Never mind that," Natsu spoke up. "We were just in the guild and I got a job request for us to go-" 

"Thanks," Lucy interrupted, "but I'm not feeling up to it." She threw herself onto her bed and thoughtlessly continued. "Why don't you ask Lisanna to go with you?"

"Huh?" Natsu and Happy responded. "Why would we do that?"

This caused Lucy to sit up from her be."Wait," she said. "Isn't Natsu dating Lisanna?" 

"What?" Natsu exclaimed. "No! It's not like that."

Lucy then realized that Chico never said how long she was controlling the members of the guild, nor had she asked her. Her thought of being betrayed by the woman, though conflicted by the fact that she was willing to betray the guild over her, was momentarily overshadowed by her statement from earlier. _"I figured they would do something together after they got back."_

"Geez, Lucy. Why would you even ask a question like that?" Natsu said, trying to ignore the embarrassment the question caused him.

"Ooh," Happy taunted. "Looks like someone's in love."

"Shut up!" Natsu responded.

Lucy could tell that Happy may have been a bit closer to the truth than he'd like to admit. "Tell you what. Why don't you ask Lisanna if she'd want to go on the mission with you?"

"Are you sure?" Natsu asked. "You won't mind at all."

"With all the crazy things that have happened since meeting you two and joining the guild? You two working together wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen."

**Author's Note:**

> If you're reading this the day this was posted, APRIL FOOLS! If you read it within the first month it was posted, I planned to change the relationship tag, but I got lazy and left it up for all of April. Oops?
> 
> I've been working on this story since even before participating in the first Big Bang. I came up with the basic idea for this story years ago and had already finished writing this story even before I finished "Natsu, the Dragon Slayer". This was almost my debut story. Ultimately, I decided against introducing the world to this story then and held onto it for just the right time. Considering I got some messages over my views on the FT Ships on Tumblr, I figured it might be fun to use this as an April Fools joke.
> 
> As to how I came about the idea for this, I got the inspiration for this story after reading a ton of those "Lucy gets kicked off Team Natsu and leaves the guild" for a series I did on my blog. As popular as they seem to be with a lot of fans, I'm not a fan for several reasons. I thought about how it would be possible to keep the elements of these stories and came up with the idea of Chico coming back to get revenge on Lucy. (I didn't know she liked Laxus until I was drafting the story.)
> 
> My main goal was to use the elements of this story archetype to tell a story that could reasonably have happened between the canon chapters "Gift" and "Morning of a New Adventure". I wanted to make sure that Lucy feels like she's special and wanted after this chapter - a theme I notice many writers of those stories try to get at. I have a couple of other stories I might write connected to this so let me know if you want more of this "AU".
> 
> See you!


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